Bad management practices increase during troubled times

Let's face it, the boss you hate, who is Machiavellian, angry and leads through fear is just hitting their stride with a slacking economy, a rise in unemployment, and fear over continued employment, this is just going to be not an employee's time.

It is commonly known that the best people, the ones that that the company cannot afford to lose are the first ones who flee a company that is having problems. What is generally left behind are folks who feel like they must stay for whatever reason, economic, positional, fear, or comfort. That means the boss who is already on edge is busy trying to get more out of people, and even good bosses might be tempted to revert to power and control tactics trying to keep the department afloat that has lost the ones who used to carry the department.

It is also interesting to note that when it comes to layoff's, it is also those that are often ignore the shadow organization or informal organization that are also the first ones to be fired. Those that cause problems, cause issues, or otherwise have failed to integrate into the companies' culture over time.

The truth of the matter is that bosses who are mean are the most likely to fail, and most likely to regardless of economic conditions lead to a mass exodus of everyone who makes the department successful.

"When (bosses) are mean their teams do not deliver great results, so they become more fearful," says Sandy Gluckman, author of "Whoâ€™s in the Driverâ€™s Seat: Using Spirit to Lead Successfully." "The more fearful they get, the more their ego takes control and the meaner they get. The meaner they get, the more the team shuts down and the less they are able to perform." Source: MSNBC

You can also tell newly minted bosses from old hand bosses, new bosses are more likely to cut the free coffee, perks, benefits, and the occasional gift of a starbucks card because while they have profited from the behavior in the past with other managers, they are looking at numbers, and are more inclined to make their superiors or supervisors happy. An older more seasoned boss will make every argument in the book to keep small perks like that, or go out and purchase starbucks cards for their crew just because they can. Seasoned happy concerned bosses will go out of their way to make sure that the stress is low, the work output is steady or increasing, and doing what they need to do to assuage the fears of their employees. Power crazed bosses will not, and everyone suffers up and down the organization.

It is tempting to try to get more out of a person, but actual productivity has stagnated or fallen in recent years, making it much harder to get more out of people when they are already on the edge. If someone is worried about their job, they are more likely to underperform than they are to try to reach stellar heights of productivity. A Machiavellian boss, an angry boss, or one who is manipulating fear is going to cause a major disruption of an already stressed department or organization.

Your angry boss is going to cost the company more in the longer run than your boss who cares and is trying everything to keep it together. In the longer run, the happy boss is more important to your organization than the unhappy angry boss. You can also guarantee (much like what happened after the technology industry started picking up in 2002) that the minute this crisis is over and history, that people will be shopping for new jobs just as soon as they can. A mass firing followed by a mass exodus a few years later will have serious repercussions for a company.

Add to that the proliferation of blogs, social media, social networks, your company and your bosses are being talked about. People check these kinds of things out, and there are companies that have a very hard time hiring people because of past managers, and past issues with management. Always things to look out for, and the safest thing to do right now is reel in your angry Machiavellian bosses now.

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The opinions of this article are the opinions of this writer. They are not the opinions of my employers, nor in any way does this blog, these entries, or any information on this site reflect the opinion of my employers or people associated with me.

8 Comments

It's typical that new managers are created based on their technical abilities and not their management abilities. The management and leadership domains need to be learned and practiced just like any technical skill.
Unfortunately few companies provide management and leadership training.

@Dave, I could not agree with you more, just got done working with a shiny new manager who wanted to do away with free coffee and is having problems understanding that power and control are illusionary, and being blogged about stinks.

Some new managers are created by the churn that happens at some companies, e.g. the middle manager quits or a new VP brings in his team that all get promoted from where they were together before. There is also something to be said for having a process in place for building up teams which I would think should be covered in leadership training unless one just learns to lead themselves and not others. ;-)

@jb - I have seen training like this, but have/am learning that a lot of it also has to do with the new manager, how much they wanted it, how ready they are for it, and how much they think they owe those above and below them. Anything in that mix that is out of balance with the culture = disaster, my 2 cents and my experience.

Generalizations above. Managers are a mix of no technology (promoted facilitators/coordinators), obsolete (they did tech 20 years ago) and those who have kept up. They are also a mix of personalities.

Some are Bobby Knight chair throwing perfectionists. Some micro-manage. Almost any type can be successful or unsuccessful. The trick is to match the manager to the players on the team (or vice versa). The valuable player is able to play for almost any type of manager. The prima-dona players who whine (see above) actually might not perform well on any team.

There was a notice in the office of one manager I worked under that said "The sign of a good manager is a non-event". I.E. nothing ever went wrong in their department and problems were averted before they arose.

Unfortunately such a manager is often seen as not being a 'proper' manager - no employee disciplinary reports, crisis meetings with senior management etc etc.

Two things of note about this:
1) The notice was wasted on this particular guy as he lurched from one crisis to another.

2) Higher management got where they were by being seen to deal successfully with crisis after crisis, regardless of the fact that it was their lack of foresight that got them in the hole in the first place, so look upon the guy who works well when in a mess as a 'good' manager ! Sure, it's a good thing to be able to do but look for who caused it please !!

PS - yes he was eventually promoted to where he could do no more damage so in that respect he was a successful manager despite the legacy he left the ones taking over his position.

I was at a management consulting gig yesterday, and overall, what is interesting is that some of these divisions and bad behavior can be attributed to age or how touchy feely the management should be. Had new guard/old guard up and at least they agreed to disagree after hours of drama. I hate drama.

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